‘INTERNET SENSATION’
How Cam Atkinson’s grandmother became famous on Twitter
Marge Robben slipped on a Philadelphia Flyers jersey and snapped a selfie to show her support for her grandson, NHL veteran and Greenwich native Cam Atkinson.
Atkinson, who was traded to the Flyers this summer after 10 years with the Columbus Blue Jackets, loved the image. When
Robben tweeted her selfie, Atikinson did what any proud grandson would do.
He shared the picture with his more than 55,000 Twitter followers.
And away it went.
Robben, who resides at the Edgehill retirement community in Stamford, quickly became a social media star among Philadelphia’s passionate sports fan base.
Grandma Marge, as she’s called, was the inspiration for a line of T-shirts. She will be at the Wells Fargo Center for the Flyers season opener on Oct. 15, part of a ceremony involving the team’s iconic mascot Gritty.
“I’m all in,” said Marge, 87.
How did the grandmother of an NHL star turn into an internet sensation?
Robben suspects it’s because she wore the Flyers shirt backwards in her selfie, choosing the name “Atkinson” for the front instead of the Flyers’ logo.
“That created a wild response,” she said. As of Tuesday, Atkinson’s Aug. 2 quote tweet had over 2,500 likes. Fans have responded to both Atkinson’s tweet and his grandmother’s original tweet.
Marge said she stopped trying to keep up. Now she’s just enjoying her new fame as her grandson prepares for his first season in Philadelphia.
“I don't know if it was the fact that I’m a grandmother or I was on the internet or what it was, but something hit the heartstrings of the fans,” she said. “And from what I heard, it might be that the Philadelphia Flyers did not have the greatest reputation for a long time, and now Cam was coming and had a very happy disposition.
“And now his Grandmother was coming, too. This was a new way to present the Philadelphia Flyers. I think that’s what it was.”
Atkinson, who was raised in Greenwich, grew up in an athletic family. Marge said she is proud of all 14 grandchildren and her family supported all the kids in their athletic endeavors.
Cam was a standout hockey player in Fairfield County and at Avon Old Farms before attending Boston College. Undersized at 5-foot-8, he made an improbable rise to the NHL and emerged as an All-Star — not to mention a popular figure — in Columbus.
But he was traded in July (“He almost fell over when he found out!” Marge said) and he gave his grandmother a gift at a family gathering in early August. A Flyers jersey with Atkinson’s name on the back, autographed by Cam.
Marge loved it and shared the selfie. She took her afternoon nap, as she does each day.
“My phone kept beeping, meaning there was a message coming in … beep, beep, beep all during my nap,” Marge said. “I said, ‘What the heck is going on? Did somebody die?’
“So I got up and I saw a couple of messages and said oh, something's happening. The Philadelphia Flyers are onto this. And then it was going on for two days, all the beeping ... and they are inviting me to a parade, they're going to take me out for drinks and they're going to pay for everybody, they can. It was just so cute.”
Yes, Marge and her family will take the train to Philadelphia for Cam’s first regular season game. Atkinson’s parents, Tom and Ellen, have seen him play in Columbus, but Marge never made the trip to Ohio.
Seeing her grandson with his new team will be a treat. But she is also relishing her own celebrity.
The T-shirt featuring a cartoon image of Grandma Marge?
“That's taken off, but it's the ugliest thing you've ever seen,” she said. “It does not look like me!”
Marge said she is not sure exactly what is planned for her Oct. 15 visit. Maybe a meeting with Gritty on the ice, maybe a Zamboni ride. She’ll likely get some face time on the Jumbotron.
Whatever the plan, the Flyers have a willing participant.
“As I said, I’m all in,” Marge said. “What I used to do, up until like I was 60, I would put on my roller skates every morning at my house on Sound Beach Avenue and roller skate around Greenwich Point. I don't know when I stopped, it could have been almost 70 and I’m 87 now.
“But I said I'd like to borrow someone's brown skates or black skates … and I'll skate out there and meet Gritty on the ice. I’m all in! But they wouldn’t let me do that. My family said, no way!”